“Searching for Sugarman” (2012) Netflix – documentary about a 1970s musician named Sixto Rodriguez who had several hit songs and then was rumored to have killed himself onstage after failing to achieve success; several fans overseas set out to debunk the rumor(s) and learn what really happened; highly recommend but do not google it before consumption

“Barry” (2018) HBO – dark comedy I was prompted to binge watch after Henry Winkler and Bill Hader won Emmys for their work in this show; very entertaining show about a disillusioned hit man who stumbles upon an acting class in LA and may have found his new calling; highly recommend; renewed for season two

“Casting Call” podcast (2018) Gimlet – Gimlet set out to find the next great podcaster by narrowing down over 5,000 podcast entries to 3 finalists; each finalist’s pilot episode is broadcast and the winner will be announced in October; very entertaining so far

“Bird by Bird” book (1994) Anne Lamott – the author wrote this book to share lessons she learned over the years as a writer – both on writing and life in general; the title “bird by bird” references her father many years ago telling her brother overwhelmed by a school project on birds to start by taking it “bird by bird”; highly recommend

We need to talk about Westworld. Let me rephrase, you need to talk about Westworld and explain to me what’s going on, and I’ll just listen. I really enjoyed season two but I’m a little hazy about what actually happened. Queries:

1.When exactly did Charlotte turn into Dolores? I’ll have to take a sabbatical from work to watch the season over and try and figure this out.

2.How did Teddy get to the new world? I thought he was really dead?

3.Will Akecheta be back? I suspect not but I’m putting my head in the sand on this because his standalone episode was my favorite and I adore Zahn McClarnon.

4.Why didn’t Maeve pause the chaos earlier so her friends had a chance? That one baffles me.

I’d love your insight in the comments.

I’ll admit I binged the entire second season of Glow on Netflix last weekend. It was about 110 degrees here on the East Coast so I didn’t feel bad staying in and watching tv instead of baking outdoors. I was nervous that the show wouldn’t live up to the first season but I was wrong. Having grown up in the 80s, the show is a great mix of nostalgia, simplicity, and characters. Marc Maron, Alison Brie, and Betty Gilpin are first class actors and they’re supported by a wacky, talented group of women.

Occupied – I just finished the second season of Occupied on Netflix. If you like Scandinavian political thrillers, this show is for you. I found out recently through ancestry.com that the majority of my ancestry is Scandinavian, so I was particularly interested to check out the second season.

The second season sees Jesper’s former assistant/paramour Anyta taking over as PM. I don’t want to give the story away but the political intrigue takes off from there. I especially like how this show depicts various perspectives, from the personal to the political.

The finale set up a third season perfectly. Occupied is on Netflix, 8 episodes about 54 minutes each.

Flint Town – We’re still watching this documentary on Netflix. It was filmed in 2016 in Flint, Michigan. The series follows the Flint Police Department through a budget crisis, as well as the water crisis. It really gives you some perspective on the difficulties faced by the police, the fire department, the government, and the residents. I’m not sure there are any solutions but at least this series is shedding light on the issues.

So now we have an ice dragon. I have to say it – this was totally predictable and thus quite the deviation for D2. Query – does it breathe fire or ice?

I don’t have much to say about this episode. Quite frankly, I was bored. I actually wanted it to end at 10 pm. The Arya/Sansa dynamic can’t even be classified as a dynamic, it’s that boring. It’s clear that Petyr is trying to play them off of each other but aren’t they too smart for that? Perhaps they are, and this viewer is missing something. Was Arya posing as Brienne so she can go to King’s Landing in disguise and kill Cersei? As you can tell, I’m not only bored but also confused.

The battle scenes beyond the wall were disappointing. I couldn’t even tell who was fighting, or who was killed. The dragon stuff was cool, as usual, but the special effects didn’t make up for the poor dialogue and storytelling here.

I’m hoping this was a one off and the show will be back to form this week.

Wow, sorry readers. I just realized I was so jammed up last week that I didn’t get to post on the passing of one of my favorite characters, The Queen of Thorns. May she rest in peace. “The Queen’s Justice” was a great episode, but this week’s was even better. We finally got to see some real dragon ass-kicking.

I’ll admit I was disappointed by the Jaime death fake out, which seemed a bit cheap considering the usual high quality of this show. As FW pointed out, D2 would have made it crystal clear if the hottest knight in Westeros was really dead (“hottest knight” being my phrase, not his). FW also has a theory, which I think is plausible, that Jaime has to stick around so that we believe he killed Cersei, when in fact the killer is Arya, disguised as Jaime. Did you get all that?

I enjoyed the Jon Snow/Theon reunion if only because all the worlds are coming full circle now and colliding. I presume they’ll band together to defeat Euron and save Yara, but since that is an easily-predicted theory, I’m probably wrong.

I feel like the show is really building us up for a spectacular Cersei fall/death. I may have more thoughts on this episode once I rewatch it this week.

I’ll be honest, I don’t have a lot to say about this week’s episode. My regular readers know that I find Arya terribly boring, and the same applies to Samwell. Since they took up a lot of space on this episode, I’ll keep this brief.

It’s obvious that Sam is going to cure Jorah, and Jorah will probably save Daenerys out of nowhere at some point. I’ll admit I’m over Jorah and his lack of a storyline. He served a purpose for the first few seasons but his character feels extraneous to me. Especially since there are so many other delicious characters to spend time with (see Lady Olenna, Lady Mormont, et al.).

How long have we waited for Daenerys to be in the same room with Ellaria, Yara, AND Olenna, with a side of Tyrion and Varys? You can see how D2 is bringing all of the various factions into one place for the wars to come. The irony is that no one besides boring Jon Snow is focused on the real threat. I’m still trying to figure out who the leaker is.

I guess I have to talk about the ambush scene at the end. The special effects were awesome, to be sure. However, Euron and his crazy eyes are just too much. FW believes he’ll get killed by the end of this season, and I hope he’s right. I like Yara’s character but I’m not sure what will happen to her. I expect that Ellaria is the “gift” Euron promised to Cersei.

My mind is all over the place today for a lot of reasons, one of which is that I stayed up past my bedtime to watch the Game of Thrones season 7 premiere (so worth it!). I’ll leave the detailed recap to the rest and just give you my randos:

1.I am still bored of Arya’s storyline. I know, it’s crazy, she’s a cool child assassin and all, but it took too long to come to fruition and frankly, I don’t give a crap about the Freys.

2.I couldn’t see anything in man-bun’s fire? Was I supposed to? Is it a hoax? Does my failure to see it simply confirm my atheism?

3.Speaking of which, did someone bring The Hound back to life? I just presumed he recovered after his fight with Brienne. However, I think I missed something because they referenced him being resurrected last night.

4.Was Dragonstone this cool when Stannis lived there? I seem to recall that most of those scenes were shot at night, and he never sat on that cool dragon throne. Perhaps the Lord of Light frowns on such indulgences.

5.It seems obvious that Arya will be the one to kill Cersei so I’m going with Jaime. I suspect she’ll plot something truly evil that will threaten ordinary citizens (a la the mad king) and history will repeat itself.

6.I need Brienne and Tormund to get together. That is all.

7.Who is kissing Yara in the scene’s for next week? It looked like Jon Snow but I can’t imagine that’s true.

8.Euron’s new look is very American Idol contestant, season one. I loved the leather jacket though. I think he’s planning to bring back Tyrion as a hostage. Perhaps that’s where theory #5 comes in.

9.Sam Tarly is so boring. I love books and libraries, but he and his storyline are so dull. Please shortcut his scenes, D & D.

10.Wondering how and when Lady Olenna and the Sand Snakes will make an appearance?